Charles Krauthammer: No Benghazi ‘circus’

Charles Krauthammer is warning Republicans not to turn the House select committee on Benghazi into a “political circus,” saying these are “dangerous waters” for the party as it approaches the 2014 midterm elections.

“[These are] very dangerous political waters,” he said to Megyn Kelly on Fox News Thursday night. “Think about this, Megyn. If this is 2014, the winds are right behind the Republicans approaching the election on all the major issues.”

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The hearings, he said, can accordingly hurt the GOP as it approaches the midterms with some policy advantages.

“Benghazi hearings can only distract from this at best and really wreck it at worst if they turn into a partisan circus,” Krauthammer said. “So far from being a political advantage for Republicans, this is a very high-risk operation and it requires someone like [House select committee chairman Rep. Trey] Gowdy.”

Republicans have already run into some criticism over the Benghazi issue, with the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee coming under fire for efforts this month to fundraise off of the issue. House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday skirted questions about whether he would cut off fundraising efforts on the issue, as requested by some Democrats and Gowdy himself.

Krauthammer also said Democrats that have called for even party representation on the committee were simply pulling a political “stunt.”

“It’s a joke. It’s a stunt,” he said. “This is simply a way to obfuscate over the process so they can delay or sort of throw people off the scent of the content.”